reflective practice handouts - for delivering with mahara...

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Edited extract from A practical approach to guiding students through the transition from FE to beyond Philip Perry and Lisa Webb, Coventry University, Coventry with Karen Johnson and Dave Hassell, Hereward College, Coventry in association with Coventry & Warwickshire Lifelong Learning Network, Published summer 2011

Reflective practice handouts - for delivering with Mahara 1.4

This article is an extract from:

A practical approach to guiding students through the transition from FE to

beyond

Philip Perry and Lisa Webb, Coventry University, Coventry

with Karen Johnson and Dave Hassell, Hereward College, Coventry

in association with Coventry & Warwickshire Lifelong Learning Network

Published summer 2011

The original book contains a series of reflective practice handouts that can be delivered using

PebblePad, Mahara and paper-based portfolios.

http://www.teachingshelf.co.uk

This extract comprises the Mahara handouts alone. These have been edited by Anne Dickinson to

reflect changes in Mahara that took place in summer 2011 after the publication of the original.

Anne wishes to thank the authors for giving her their permission to use their book in this way.

http://www.teachingshelf.co.uk/

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Introduction to Mahara 1.4

This introduction describes some of the terms that are now used within Mahara.

Mahara is a system that can be used for creating a portfolio online. It enables a user to add content

to a personal area. A user can then choose which blocks of content to add to a web page. Users can

build more than one page within Mahara. The pages remain private until they have been shared by

the user. A user can share a page with an individual, a group within the Mahara community or as a

secret URL (web address) to anyone who has internet access. A user can also create and share a

collection of pages that contain their own navigation.

The Mahara artefacts that are used in these worksheets are Journal, Plans and Résumé.

Content

Items that can be added to Mahara. Content includes profile information, files, Journals, CV

(Résumé) and Plans.

Journal

An online diary comprising tagged messages. A user can add a single Journal entry, the latest Journal

entries or an entire Journal to a Page. A user can have more than one Journal.

Plan

A tool for describing plans. Each plan can have tasks and timescales associated with it.

Page

A collection of content blocks chosen by the user to display a specific aspect of a portfolio on a web

page. Content may be from within Mahara or from external sources such as YouTube or Google

docs. A user can create more than one page. Pages can be shared with groups or individuals.

AD Nov 2011

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Reflective Practice Handouts - Contents

A Getting to know you ................................................................................................................................ 4

Getting acquainted with Mahara ....................................................................................................................... 5

Creating a Journal entry ................................................................................................................................. 5

Getting acquainted with yourself ....................................................................................................................... 6

B Goal-setting 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 7

Spot the difference ............................................................................................................................................. 8

Creating an action plan .................................................................................................................................. 9

C Evaluation strategies 1 .......................................................................................................................... 10

How you got here and where you’re going ...................................................................................................... 11

Adding a Journal entry ................................................................................................................................. 11

Creating a Résumé (CV) ............................................................................................................................... 12

D Evaluation strategies 2 .......................................................................................................................... 13

Documenting meetings .................................................................................................................................... 14


Creating an action plan ................................................................................................................................ 15

E Specialism ............................................................................................................................................. 16

Thinking about making decisions ..................................................................................................................... 17


F Researching opportunities ..................................................................................................................... 19

Beginning to think about your career ............................................................................................................... 20

Creating an entry to Plans ............................................................................................................................ 20

G Personal statement ............................................................................................................................... 22

Thinking about your personal statement ......................................................................................................... 23


H Goal-setting 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 25

The beginning of the end of the journey .......................................................................................................... 26


I Personal style ........................................................................................................................................ 27

Thinking about your personal style .................................................................................................................. 28

Document your thinking .............................................................................................................................. 28

J Did I make the grade?............................................................................................................................ 29

Looking beyond ................................................................................................................................................ 30

Creating a Journal entry ............................................................................................................................... 30

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A Getting to know you

This first exercise invites students to undertake a series of online questionnaires that will help them

to identify their personality type and characteristics, and think about them in terms of how they

function as a student.

Suggested release date: October

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Getting acquainted with Mahara

Mahara is an ePortfolio tool in an electronic format. It makes it easier for you to document your

work and academic aspirations. You can access your Mahara account from anywhere at any time,

easily and quickly share its contents with as many people as you want, and organise and manage

information in a simple way.

It is important that you think about your work and your development as a student / practitioner. The

more you analyse and plan ahead, the more you will learn about yourself and your practice and

become better at managing your studies.

In this first exercise you will use a journal and add your first entry.

Journals (online diaries) are good ways for you to keep records of your ongoing development on the

course. Once a journal is created, you can add entries directly to it or attach files. Think of a journal

as a folder into which you can add different, relevant things. This way, they are organised and easy

to view. You can use your Mahara journal to document learning in your projects, or career

aspirations and opportunities, exhibitions you’ve been involved in, visits you’ve made, and so on.

Today, we’re going to create a journal that’s dedicated to you and the work you are doing on your

course, and you should add material to it on a regular basis.

1. From the homepage, select ‘Content’ and ‘Journals’.

2. Click the title of the Journal, choose ‘Settings’ and provide a short description of what you’re going

to use it for. When you have added the description, press the ‘Save Settings’ button.

3. Once your journal is created, you can add entries directly by pressing the ‘New Entry’ button.

Creating a Journal entry

From the ‘Journals’ menu select ‘New Entry’ and complete each section – describe a project you are

currently working on. Are you enjoying it? How’s it going? Where are you taking it? Is it the sort of

thing you’d like to be doing in the future? Give the entry a title and give it a tag. This will help you to

organise and view collections of entries later on. You might use a unit or module name, or

coursework title, for example. Scroll to the bottom and press the ‘Save entry’ button.

You have now started your Mahara journal!

This journal is a personal space where you’re beginning to think about your interests as a

practitioner. It is a space where you should consider the activities that you are undertaking, those

that you are enjoying, and those that you find don’t fuel your motivations as much. During the

course of the year, this journal will create an emerging picture of you as a practitioner and student.

It will enable you to begin to identify subjects, disciplines, methods, processes, practices, and so on

that interest you and inform your work. This in turn will help to guide you in thinking about what

happens after your current course.

Create more entries! Tag them! You can do this whenever you like, wherever you have access to the

internet.

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Getting acquainted with yourself

It’s important to know who you are. How do you learn best? Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

How do you relate to other people? These issues will have a direct influence on how you work, and

they are things that you might want to address in relation to the projects that you are doing. How

will you adapt to your new learning environment? Do you need to?

You will find plenty of similar tests, but here are some very reliable sources for you to experiment

with. Once you’ve done them, think about your results. How might the results affect your time on

the course? How might you change the way you work or interact or think about other people based

on the results you get? Did you learn anything new about yourself? You might want to add more

entries to your journal at a later date.

http://tinyurl.com/3dgmm (www.vark-learn.com)

This test will give you your preferred learning style and explain what it means

http://tinyurl.com/627wk (www.bbc.co.uk)

This test will reveal how typically male or female you are and where strengths lie in different aspects

of your life, based on a number of short quizzes

http://tinyurl.com/6l4n2 (www.bbc.co.uk)

This test will provide you with some information on your personality type

http://tinyurl.com/39okx45 (www.careertest.net)

This test will give you a four-initial personality type as determined by renowned Swiss psychiatrist

Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

http://tinyurl.com/pf65d (www.personalitypage.com),

http://tinyurl.com/379lcev (www.typelogic.com),

http://tinyurl.com/37y8635 (www.murraystate.edu)

These websites will give you a good explanation of your Jungian personality type

Once you have gathered some results then you can consider writing about them. Add a new entry or

entries in Mahara to discuss your findings in relation to your working practice. Discover the software

while you’re discovering yourself, but remember why: this is about you as a developing professional

and a student. You want to be successful, and this is the start of a reflective journey where you can

analyse and plan for that success

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B Goal-setting 1

This first goal-setting exercise provokes students into consideration of their role as an ‘active

learner’ who is less passive than they might have been at school. With focus on an upcoming

deadline, the student is asked to think about time management and work strategies for successful

completion of tasks.

Suggested release date: October

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Spot the difference

You have probably noticed that learning on your current course seems to be a different experience

to learning on your previous course. Instead of being taught in one- or two-hour sessions all day by

your teachers, you are now expected to be much more autonomous. This gives you extra

responsibility as a learner because you have to motivate yourself to seek knowledge instead of wait

for the knowledge to be delivered to you.

This might be a slightly unnerving situation to be in: on the one hand you have more freedom, but

on the other you’re expected to use it sensibly and productively.

In this exercise you will think about how you manage this time and what short-term goals you might

target. This will help you to build on your project work and meet important deadlines. Some

questions (make a note of your answers)

a) Write a list of the differences between your academic life last year and this year. What has

changed? How are you taught? How are you expected to function? Where are you expected to

work?

b) How have you functioned under this structure so far? Do you think you are working to your

optimum abilities?

c) What is the most important deadline that you have right now? It might be tomorrow, next week

or next month.

d) What changes will you make to your way of working and what things will you keep the same in

order to meet your deadlines?

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Creating an action plan

In this exercise you will create an action plan and use it to discuss issues that have arisen as a

consequence of thinking about the questions. What are the important differences in your current

learning? How will you ensure that you’re going to be successful in adapting to the new structures

and schemes?

1. From the ‘Content’ page, select ‘Plans’ and press the ‘New plan’ button and call the plan

something sensible (such as, “An action plan for my learning”). In the ‘Description’ box, explain your

current thinking about how you relate to the structure of your current course and how it’s different

to the way you were previously expected to work. Next, talk about which approaches you wish you

felt more confident with and how that might improve your work. This is your ideal situation.

2. Create four headings: ‘Strengths’, ‘Weaknesses’, ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Threats’. Make a note of all

the things relative to those headings that are relevant to you becoming a better learner on this

course. Where are your strengths? Where are your weaknesses? What opportunities are there to

help you improve (think about your answers to the ‘steps to success’ section and add more content

there if you need to)? Where might the threats to this success be?

3. Think back over the information you’ve provided in this exercise and offer some reflection.

Comment on how positive - or negative! - you feel about your situation. What have you learned

about yourself, the way you work or the things you do?

4. Press the ‘Save plan’ button.

5. Make a note of all the things you think you can realistically do that might help you to become a

better learner. Try to be as specific as possible; think about who you might talk to, where you might

sit, how you might conduct yourself differently, which rooms you might use, and so on. Add each of

these, in an appropriate order, to your plan by pressing the ‘New task’ button. Give each task a title,

a completion date, and discuss what it is in the ‘Description’ box. Note the ‘Completed’ tick box:

once each task is done, you can return to this entry and tick it off. For now though, press the ‘Save

task’ button.

Once you have undertaken each of the tasks you have set yourself, revisit your reflection (from step

3), think about your achievements (from step 5), and make a new entry for your journal that

discusses your new situation and thinking.

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C Evaluation strategies 1

This exercise provokes the student into starting to address the potential directions that their current

coursework might move them in. The intention is to help the student build on the thinking they

constructed in the first goal setting exercise by evaluating their commitment to current learning and

objectives.

Suggested release date: November

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How you got here and where you’re going

As a part of your development as a pre-degree student, you need to think carefully about the future.

In the short-term: what do you want to specialise in? In the medium-term: what course do you want

to do next year? In the long-term: what career do you want to eventually move into?

You have now undertaken a number of sessions in a subject you feel is interesting to you and

answers at least one of the questions above. So are you enjoying it? Or have these classes helped

you to make up your mind that you’re better suited to a different subject?

Some questions (make a note of your answers)

a) Are you committed to this?

Working in this field requires dedication to your subject and for the act of producing work. Do you

feel as though this is something you can dedicate yourself to? Do you want to? What have been your

strategies for producing work so far? Do they need to change? Or does it get good results for you?

b) What’s the most positive and / most negative response you’ve received about your work so far?

It doesn’t matter from whom, but think back over the conversations and feedback you’ve had about

your work since the course began and consider the highs and lows. How did that feedback make you

feel? How did it change or drive your work? How has it affected decisions you’ve made about your

future? If it didn’t at the time, then could it have? Consider it now.

c) What are or might be your particular interests in your field of study?

What would you like to specialise in or what areas within your study do you hope to be able to focus

on? It’s important to understand why you’re making this decision because it is potentially life-

changing or life-defining. What have you learned on the course so far that has helped to convince

you that you’re making the right decision? What have you read, seen or heard that has informed

you? How is the development or the outcomes of your work helping to prove to you that this is the

way forward? Are you playing safe? Is that okay? Are you taking risks? Is that okay..?

Adding a Journal entry

In this exercise you will create a new update and use it to discuss (some of) the issues that have

arisen as a consequence of thinking about the questions. What are the important events you have

been involved with which are significant to you as a developing practitioner?

1. From the ‘Content’ page select ‘Journals’ and press the ‘New Entry’ button. Call your new entry

something sensible (such as, “Thinking about my classes”) and write a paragraph that describes the

key classes that you’ve been involved with so far. There is no need to reflect on your experiences at

this point: just tell us what kind of things you did.

2. Provide a bullet-point list of the activities that your experiences contained. This might include such

things as discussing options with colleagues, practical tasks, talking with staff, writing... is there

anything else? Try to put this list of important activities in order as it’ll make it easier for you to

understand when you look back on it in the future.

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3. Write a paragraph that offers your reflections on the experience you’ve had so far. What do you

feel you have learned? Did you enjoy it? Were you pleased with your work? What was it like to work

with a team? Or on your own? Would you like to do any of these things again? Remember to ask

yourself “Why?” and “How?” to these questions and any others you ask - and make a note of the

answers you give!

4. Tag the entry in an appropriate way. Note that you can add tags that you have already used by

pressing the ‘Show my tags’ link and choosing the appropriate tags.

5. If you want to, you can add some proof of your work in the ‘Attachments’ section. You may not

have anything at the moment, but this is where you might upload a photograph or a scan of your

work, or a text file, or something else that is relevant. Press ‘Add a File’ button. Select the file you

want to add from your computer.

6. Save your entry by pressing the ‘Save entry’ button.

Creating a Résumé (CV)

Now that you have begun to think about the directions you’re taking, construct a CV that reflects

this thinking. It will change as you continue to move through the course and continue to find new

avenues of study and interest, but certain details will remain consistent.

1. From the ‘Content’ page select ‘Résumé’.

2. Progress through the six tabs, adding concise information for each box that is relevant to you and

your work. Remember to save each section by pressing the ‘Save’ button.

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D Evaluation strategies 2

This exercise provokes the student into starting to address the potential directions that their current

coursework might move them in and asks them to consider their relationship with the feedback they

have been receiving. It leads out of the goal setting exercise. The exercise is ideally placed after a big

critique or a discussion of the learners’ academic progress.

Suggested release date: November

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Documenting meetings

Over the course of the last few months you have been receiving lots of feedback from tutors, your

colleagues on the course, and possibly people from outside the course (such as friends, family or

professionals). This might have been in the form of formal critiques, conversations in the classroom /

studio / lab, or even a chat over breakfast. Most significantly, you might have started having

discussions about your future: the places you want to go, the people you want to meet, and the

things you want to do when you graduate from your current course.

The effect of this can sometimes seem confusing, because you’re often confronted with lots of

conflicting opinions and ideas. One person likes one thing and another likes something else; or

worse, one person likes a part of your work that another doesn’t like at all! Just as confusing, one

person might think you’re better suited to one type of degree course, and another think you’re

better suited elsewhere else. Eek!


In this exercise you will start documenting conversations that you’re having about your work and

aspirations, and start thinking about what you might do with the information you’ve been given.

1. From the ‘Content’ page, select ‘Journals’, press the ‘New Entry’ button and give it a title (which

might include the topic of the discussion you want to talk about, the person or people you’ve spoken

with, or the date the conversation took place).

2. Briefly describe what the conversation was about.

3. Now make a note of what was decided at the meeting. These may or may not be things that you

agree with, but they’re things that require investigation.

4. Think about the books, websites, people and other sources of information that might help you

think about the issues that have arisen. In order to do this, you might conduct some research.

Document your findings with an explanation for why you feel that they will be relevant.

5. Finally, discuss your thoughts about the meeting: did you agree with the feedback, and where do

you go from here? Think about the work that you need to do as a consequence of this activity and

discuss when you want to get it completed by.



7. If you want to, you can add some proof of your discussion in the ‘Attachments’ section. Press the

‘Add a File’ button. Select the file you want to add from your computer.


Document other important meetings as they happen and use your blog to document key

conversations that you have about your work and future.

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Creating an action plan

Having considered a conversation, or a number of conversations, you should once again use the

‘Plans’ tool to present schemes for achieving goals and ambitions that have emerged.

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E Specialism

This handout asks students to complete two exercises. At this point in their academic careers, the

students will have begun to specialise in a particular area, and it’s from here that they can start to

think about and begin to initiate their plans for progressing in particular academic or professional

directions. Following a short piece of reflection, the handout looks forward to the oncoming year,

and the student will make an action plan that gets them from now to the next academic /

professional level.

Suggested release date: December

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Thinking about making decisions

You will soon make one of the most important decisions of your academic career, by choosing an

academic pathway that will dictate the sort of degree course you enrol onto and the sort of career

you pursue. You probably have some idea which direction you’d like to take, but you might be

surprised to discover that a lot of your interests and ambitions can be developed in some other

areas.

In this exercise, you will think about the pathway options that your course offers and think about the

possible directions that those which interest you might lead.


a) Make a note of the projects that you have enjoyed the most

Don’t be surprised if there’s an ‘odd one out’ in your list; you might notice patterns in the projects

you choose (such as them being group assignments or covering a similar topic), but there might be

one that doesn’t immediately seem to fit in the list.

b) Make a note of things those projects included that were particularly interesting or rewarding

This is where you disassemble the projects and think about what you learned and achieved; the bits

you enjoyed doing might have more parity than the overall projects themselves.

c) Make a note of the pathways on offer, and think about which of the criteria you’ve established in

answer to question b) might relate to each of them.

Be honest, unbiased and open to possibilities, and once you’ve generated the lists, you might find

that you’ve created an important discussion point: two or three possible directions.


Where do you go from here? It will be necessary to reflect on your findings and to talk them over

with tutors and other people in your network. Document these discussions in your journal.


something sensible (such as, “Thoughts about my pathway selection”).

2. Describe the exercise that has just taken place in two or three short sentences and discuss the

significance of the pathway decision you’re about to make. For instance, talk about how imporant it

is to you, what you’ve learned about yourself, how you work and the sort of work you might do.

3. Discuss the way that the exercise has influenced, changed or confirmed your thinking about this

issue. Write a paragraph to expand on any of the thinking you’ve just collated: you might consider

the knowledge you’ve gained, your reaction to it, or a consideration for how you might move

forward based on these things. Have you come to a definite decision? Should you enter into further

thinking or discussion to resolve this decision? Take care – this is the beginning of a long creative

journey!

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5. If you want to, you can add some proof of your work in the ‘Attachments’ section. Press the ‘Add

a File’ button. Select the file you want to add from your computer.

6. Save your entry by pressing the ‘Save task’ button

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F Researching opportunities

In this exercise, students are asked to begin thinking about their HE destinations and perform a

SWOT analysis that helps them to identify their current position and the things necessary for them

to be successful in their progression aspirations. More proactive students might have already begun

this investigative process, and this exercise will facilitate a consolidation of their thinking and

planning.


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Beginning to think about your career

Now is the time to think carefully about making decisions for the next stage of your career: which

universities or which professional routes will you pursue to enhance your personal and professional

development? It might seem a long way off, and the things you decide at this point might change in

the future, but this part focuses on thinking about what those long-term ambitions are so that you

can continue your academic journey in a productive direction.

This exercise might take some days or weeks to complete, and it is entirely driven by your keenness

to locate the most feasible outcomes.


a) What do you currently feel is your ideal career?

You might hope to be a trend-predictor, a graphic designer in an ad agency, an accountant, a

business advisor, a sports therapist, etc.

b) You might have already begun this process, but your next task is to make a list. What universities,

or job opportunities, that you feel will best support your ambition ?

This will come from a combination of advice, the world wide web, and visits to institutions or

potential employers. At this point, you need to be realistic and practical. Think about the course, but

also think about location, money, friends, family, travel, and any other personal factors that might

influence your decision. Some of this information will form the basis of a SWOT analysis.

Creating an entry to Plans

Your task is to develop a strategy, via an action plan, that discusses your aims and outlines a plan for

reaching your first post-FE destination. Some of your thinking might change in time, but this exercise

will allow you to thoroughly document your ideas.

1. From the ‘Content’ page select ‘Plans’. Press the ‘New plan’ button and give your plan a title

2. In the ‘Description’ box, provide a short description that explains where you are in your academic

career.

3. Next, explain (in academic rather than geographic terms) where it is that you aim to be in the next

twelve months. Think about what the course or job title will probably be and what sort of work you’ll

be producing. And think about your skills and abilities and which you need to progress.

4. Conduct a SWOT analysis. Think carefully about what you consider to be your Strengths and

Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats that will influence your progression. These are

important: they are the things that are either helping you move forwards or holding you back.

5. Press the ‘Save plan’ button.

6. Make a note of the tasks you’ll do to actively pursue this ambition. Remember that rational,

specific, practical thinking is key. Think about where you’re going to look, who you’re going to talk

to, what you need to produce or consider before you talk to them. Also consider any support you

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intend to make use of in terms of managing the information and ambitions you’ve input so far. What

will you look at, who will you talk to, where will you go? Add each of these to your plan, in an

appropriate order, by pressing the ‘New task’ button. Give each task a title, a completion date, and

discuss what it is in the ‘Description’ box. Note the ‘Completed’ tick box: once each task is done, you

can return to this entry and tick it off. For now though, press the ‘Save task’ button.

Once you have undertaken each of the tasks you have set yourself, offer some reflection. This is

where you might talk more informally about the things you’ve discussed above, and it’s a valuable

opportunity to look at the problem from a slightly different angle. You might even discover new

things to consider, or identify answers, through this ‘discussion’ with yourself

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G Personal statement

In this exercise the students are invited to look over the entries they’ve put into their portfolio so far

and use them as a starting point for writing their personal statement (whether for UCAS or for other

purposes). They do this by identifying their successes and interests, discussing their current position,

and then making a proposal for their immediate future. Although not a personal statement in itself,

this collected data can then be written into a consolidated paragraph in accordance with the

guidelines on relevant application papers.


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Thinking about your personal statement

You’ve selected a group of institutions or places of employment that you want to apply to, and now

it’s time to think about promoting yourself to them. For most people this will be through UCAS

(Universities and Colleges Admissions Service).

Well-written personal statements result in two important outcomes: they resolve your thinking for

yourself in a concise and meaningful way, and they demonstrate to others that you have clear

agendas, ambitions and working practices — just what potential lecturers and employers are keen to

see!

Your task is to draw together the thinking that you’ve input into your reflective portfolio, including

the assets you’ve made for these exercises, and abstract them into an honest, convincing and

informative piece of text of between 300 and 500 words. This will be a summation of the research,

reflection and planning that you have discussed so far and is intended to demonstrate that you are

thoughtful, reflective, proactive and intelligent.

Look through your Journal and Résumé and select the key moments: achievements, skills, interests

and anything else that you think helps to explain why you are a suitable candidate for the course or

post that you’re applying for. Be proud of your achievements and proud of your ambition, but

remember to be truthful and sincere: this document is launching you into a new stage of your life

and you will find it difficult to fulfil promises you can’t keep.



something sensible (such as, “My personal statement”).

2. Look through your portfolio and identify the key moments from your current course. This might

be an enjoyable day or session, good grades, good feedback, significant things you’ve learned,

targets you’ve met, and so on. You might write this as a paragraph or as a list. This is your history;

the bits that have happened that have got you to your current position.

3. Once you have brought all this data together, you can begin to analyse it. Discuss what you have

learned about yourself. Any surprises? Do you actually have skills or knowledge developing in areas

you hadn’t noticed before? Does there seem to be a particular line of research or interest starting to

emerge? This might all be familiar information to you, but it helps to put it all together in one place,

and you might see patterns you’d never spotted before. This is your current position; it’s where

you’ve ‘learned yourself to’.

4. Make a note of where you hope the future lies. What changes do you want to make to the way

you learn? The things you learn? Where would you like to learn these things? With what kind of

people? Where do you see it all leading in the next five years? Say as much as you can about your

academic and professional aspirations, referring to the information you retrieved and discussed

above. This is where you want to be; a document of the ambitions you have and which you think you

can achieve by joining another institution or entering a particular area of work.

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5. You will now need to bring this information together in one typed document that you can apply to

application forms or otherwise send on with your CV and other related information. Talk with your

teachers / tutors about getting the language right for the area you hope to move into. It always

helps to have someone ‘proof read’ your work!

6. Update your CV. You have already created it on Mahara, so you can now go back to your CV entry

and modify the information to better represent your current position and thinking

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H Goal-setting 2

In this exercise, students are asked to draw together thinking from previous tasks and think about

the final stage: preparing for interview. The questions are intentionally ‘open’ to cater for the range

of experiences students are likely to have had so far, and they are asked to reflect on this and make

plans for future interviews.

Suggested release date: January

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The beginning of the end of the journey

In the last few months you have been thinking about your academic specialism, about where it

might take you (academically and professionally), and about building a personal signature and

profile. It’s likely that you will be invited for an interview at one or more of the institutions you have

applied (or will be applying) to, and in this exercise you will begin to think about your approach to

this.

Think back to a previous interview that you have had. It might have been for your current course, for

a job, or just a role-play session as part of a classroom exercise.


1. From the ‘Content’ page, select ‘Journals’ and press the ‘New Entry’ button. Call your new entry

something sensible (such as, “Thinking about interviews”)

2. In the ‘Body’ box, discuss your / a previous interview. How long was it? Where was it? Who was

present? When was it?

3. Discuss your thoughts and feelings about the interview. Where you nervous? Confident? Did you

feel different during the interview? How about after? Were you given enough time? Did you say

everything you needed to say?

4. Discuss what you have learned from this experience. Something about yourself? Something about

the interview process? Something about how you should conduct yourself?

5. Write what you will do to be as prepared as possible for your next interview. One can never

entirely predict who will be there, what will be asked and how long you will get, but we can make

plans to take the best material, ask good questions, focus on specific points, and so on. What are the

things you want to plan for? How can you best ensure success? Who might you talk to for advice?

Think about the places you’re visiting and what you’ve said in your CV and personal statement -

what questions might you be asked? Which are the difficult ones? How will you answer them?

6. Write about any key points or reminders that have emerged during this task. This might be a

series of bullet points that you can use as a quick checklist.

7. Tag the entry in an appropriate way.

8. If you want to, you can add some proof of your work in the ‘Attachments’ section. Press the ‘Add

a File’ button. Select the file you want to add from your computer.

9. Save your entry by pressing the ‘Save entry’ button

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I Personal style

In this exercise, the students will use the learning that came from writing their personal statements

to construct a piece of text that analyses their personal style. This will form an invaluable resource of

information that the student can use at interview. It also provokes the student into thinking about

how they ‘keep moving’ and stay current: in other words, what plans do they have for ‘continuous

improvement’?

Suggested release date: May

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Thinking about your personal style

It’s important that your work demonstrates your personal voice. This can be a difficult thing to find,

especially when teachers and lecturers are keen to promote the idea of research and the influence it

has on what you do. You have become more familiar with the role of research as an active part of

your working process over the last few months of study, integrating the theories and practices of

others into your own projects’ development. This helps you to ground your work in context — that

is, you have a better understanding of why your ideas are successful because you can identify factors

that have led to successful work in the past.

Where your personal statement was a promotional piece for others, this is a more reflective piece

that identifies, for you, your style of working and your professional aspirations. Your task today is to

consider this developing personal style and think about where you’re hoping to take it.

It helps to ‘stand back’ from your work a little and look at what you’ve produced and how. Refer to

your personal statement, your potential career aspirations, and more broadly to the entries you’ve

put in your journal, and write a 300-word paragraph that explains your style of work and working.

Think of this as a manifesto. What do you think are good working practices? What do you value as an

emerging practitioner? What sort of work do you produce? How do you go about it? Just as

importantly, set yourself targets: How do you think your approaches might evolve, and how do you

hope the next year (at least) will help you to move forward? This is ultimately what you want your

future experience to provide, and it sets an agenda for the things you might focus on as a way of

extending your personal style in a productive, relevant way.

Document your thinking

1. From the ‘Content’ page, select ‘Journals’ and press the ‘New Entry’ button. Call your new entry

something sensible (such as, “My personal style”).

2. In the ‘Body’ box, provide a brief description of how you work and why.

3. Finally, discuss how your learning has informed this work-strategy and project forward: how do

you hope your future learning will help you to keep developing? What will you do to ensure

consistent progress? Are there websites or periodicals you’ll keep an eye on? Do you have a support

network you can rely on? Are there people you’d like to make contact with for advice on future

projects? Who are the key names in your specialist field? What are your views about them? What

issues (old or emerging) are there in your field that you need to be aware of and respond to? What

organisations do you aspire to work with? What can you offer them, or how might you need to

adapt to fit in? This information formulates your unique view and approach toward your work. It

gives you authority over your subject and makes you relevant to the industry.

4. Add some imagery, feedback or anything else that you think helps to reinforce your argument.

You might take photographs of your work on your mobile phone or digital camera, and these images

might show particular facets of your work rather than the whole submission: focus on the bits that

are important for this discussion.


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J Did I make the grade?

This is a summative exercise where the student looks back over the extent of their year’s learning

and recognises their achievements; but it also offers them the opportunity to make some final

evaluations and plans, based on their ongoing development.

Suggested release date: May

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Looking beyond

’You’ve reached the end of the course and you’re ready to move on. If you haven’t yet received your

final grade then you should have some indication, from your tutorials and feedback, of the sort of

grade you’re likely to achieve.

These handouts have helped you to develop an online portfolio of material that documents your

learning, skills / abilities and thinking. Look back over your writing, taking in everything from your

first entry to your last. You will notice how much you (and possibly your work) has changed in the

last few months. It’s been quite a journey!

Your task in this final handout is to focus on your development and your current position as a level 1-

ready student and / or emerging professional.

Some questions (make notes of your answers)

This is a summative piece; something to end your journal for this year and provide you with

reminders of things to carry forward to next year.

a) Make a note of all the practical skills that you’ve developed in this academic year, and list the

project work where it is most evident; explain how you expect these skills to be helpful in the

coming year.

b) Make a note of all the academic skills that you’ve developed in this academic year, and list the

project work where it is most evident; explain how you expect these skills to be helpful in the

coming year.

c) Make a note about which of the above is particularly of interest to you. There might be something

you’re very good at but which has no appeal to you, and there might be something you’re not very

good at but which you’re keen to get better at. Discuss what you hope to use and what you hope to

develop in the coming year.

Creating a Journal entry

1. Create a new entry in your journal and write about and reflect on the answers you’ve given. Do

you feel ready for the next step? Importantly, how are you more prepared having finished this

course?

You are more than just a grade, you are somebody with an interesting collection of interests,

knowledge and abilities. Be proud of your achievements and look forward to the coming year.

Congratulations on completing your current course!

reflective practice handouts - for delivering with mahara...

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